A 2017 law mandates aspiring school chiefs have six years of classroom or administrative experience. Three of those years would have to be spent as a principal in a school with an A or B accountability rating, or in a school that has improved by one letter grade during the candidate’s tenure.

Those requirements seemed straightforward when the lawmakers approved the measure last year.

But an attorney general’s opinion issued to the Kosciusko School Board shows a different interpretation. It concludes that a principal would have to serve in a school that maintained its improved rating for three years.

“To read this subsection as applying to a principal who was in a school that improved from a C rating to a B or A rating and then fell back to a C rating in less than three years would negate the statutory requirement that three of the six years be in a school with an increased accountability rating,” says the attorney general opinion that was issued in June.

Senate Education Chairman Gray Tollison, who authored the legislation outlining the new changes, said that wasn’t the law’s intent but avoided saying the opinion was wrong.

In more challenging districts, he said, those grades might be in flux.

Tollison, however, has raised the possibility of the state Department of Education addressing the issue through regulations.

Rachel Canter, the executive director of Mississippi First, which focuses on education policy, has concerns that the interpretation could become a deterrent for potential school chiefs.

Under the attorney general’s interpretation, Canter explained, a principal who improved a school from an F to a C standing over the course of three years would still fall short of the law’s requirement. That means at a minimum, the principal would have to spend another two years at the school to meet the law’s requirements.

“You’ve basically told somebody taking a job that their current placement will be for at least five years, if not six,” Canter said. “That is a long time for people who are early on in their career.”

Mississippi First has supported a number of education reforms, including charter schools, in the state. And Canter acknowledged the need for qualified leaders.

Still she has concerns that the law could deter principals in high-performing schools from entering into turnaround work in struggling school systems because of the risk.